When Abby was There
by kittykatie13
Summary: After Snake's death, Sunny meets a new friend. However, this friend hides a secret... (plot shamelessly nicked from When Marnie was There)
1. Chapter 1

(Metal Gear head canons (both mine and the Internet's) and Studio Ghibli are to blame for this. My Metal Gear knowledge begins and ends with Snake Eater, so please tell me about any mistakes I make with Guns of the Patriots events. )

 **One**

Sunny first noticed the mansion on the day she moved in to her new home. She was sitting in a taxi with her Uncle Hal when she noticed they had stopped next to an old, abandoned mansion. Sunny had never been to this town before (or anywhere else other than _Nomad_ , for that matter), so she was surprised when she saw the old building and felt how familiar it was.

Before she could examine it further, the lights changed, and the taxi drove off. Sunny spent the next few months helping move in and visiting her Uncle Dave in the hospital. She would pass by the mansion every week, and would stop to look at it when she could, but there was never any chance for her to explore beyond the rusted fence.

Until her Uncle Dave died.


	2. Chapter 2

After the funeral, Sunny found herself alone in the park with Uncle Hal. After what seemed like hours of silence, Sunny went for a walk, not knowing, or caring where she ended up. Eventually, she came to an overgrown hedge, with a very familiar roof peeking over it. There was a hole in the hedge in front of her, and Sunny realised she had an opportunity to sneak into the mansion and find out why she was drawn to it. Making up her mind, Sunny wriggled through the hole.

On the other side, Sunny found a neat, landscaped garden. Looking around, she saw that it was far tidier than it should have been, with trimmed bushes, smooth paving, and, most significantly, a little girl around her own age staring back at her.

Sunny froze as the girl came up to her.

'Who are you?' the girl exclaimed. 'What are you doing here?'

'I'm sorry! I just saw a hole in the hedge, and I wanted to see what was on the other side!'

The girl smiled. 'If that's all, then it's fine with me. I'm Abby.'

'I'm Sunny.' Sunny shyly replied.

'That's a queer sort of name.'

'It's actually Alexandra. But when I was little, I couldn't pronounce it right. So everyone just calls me Sunny.'

Abby looked curiously at Sunny. Then she clapped her hands together and smiled again.

'Let's play hide-and-seek! You hide, and I'll come and find you.'

'Huh? Why would we play hide-and-seek?'

'Because we're friends, silly! One, two, three…'

Sunny soon found that Abby was really good at hide-and-seek. Since this was her garden, she knew some really good hiding spots. Abby was also willing to squeeze into the narrowest spaces and climb trees, even if it meant that her white dress got torn or dirty.

Eventually, Sunny began to grow drowsy and sat down. Abby noticed this, and joined her new friend.

'What's wrong?'

'Nothing…jus' tired.'

Abby was disappointed. 'Does this mean you have to leave? Promise you'll visit me again!'

Sunny barely registered the request before falling asleep.

When Sunny woke up, she was lying on the ground on the other side of the hedge. She got up and made her way back to her uncle, confused as to whether this was all a dream or not.


	3. Chapter 3

Uncle Hal was not taking Uncle Dave's death well. When he wasn't in his study obsessively working on a project, he was in his room. After a week of this, Sunny decided that if her uncle wouldn't talk to her (or anyone else), her new friend would, even if she was imaginary.

By now, Sunny knew the way from her home to the park, and knew how to find the hole in the hedge. This time, the house looked as old and abandoned as it should be, with weeds poking through the paving and cracks in the windows. As soon as Sunny looked through the nearest window, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Abby standing there.

'Yay! You did come back!'

Abby grabbed Sunny by the hand and led her into the house. Inside, the house was brightly lit and well furnished. As the girls made their way through the house, Sunny could see servants working in the rooms they passed.

Eventually, Abby opened the door to her bedroom and invited her new friend in. Sunny was amazed. The room was the size of both her and her uncle's bedrooms combined, and was littered with an impressive amount of toys, books, and games. Abby noticed her new friend's amazement, and began to introduce Sunny to some of her favourite stuffed toys.

Soon the girls were happily playing with Abby's dollhouse. Sunny soon found a pair of dolls that resembled her uncles, but when she introduced them to Abby, the girl was confused.

'Why do we need two male dolls?'

'They're the children's' uncles who look after them.'

Abby was even more confused. 'The momma and daddy are supposed to look after the children. Don't you have a momma and daddy?'

Sunny shook her head. 'My mother died when I was really little. And all I know about my father is that he was sort of related to my Uncle Hal.'

Sensing that she'd brought up a sensitive topic, Abby decided that they should play something different instead, and the girls eventually found themselves pretending to be fairy-tale knights. Eventually, Sunny began to feel drowsy and lay down to rest. When she opened her eyes, she was in the garden of the old house.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunny began spending more and more time at the mansion with Abby. Some days they would play in the garden, and some days, Abby would invite Sunny inside. While Sunny would notice the servants at work, they never acknowledged her presence, and Abby's parents were never at home when Sunny visited.

Sunny asked Abby about her family one afternoon.

'My momma went to heaven when I was five, and my daddy is a really important businessman,' Abby related. 'He's also part of this group in charge of "safeguarding the world's interests", he said.'

'D-don't you get lonely on your own?'

Abby paused. 'A bit. I have a nurse, but she always has a nap around now. But when Daddy comes home, he always spends the evening with me, and sometimes he even brings presents.'

As Sunny continued to visit Abby, she noticed that her friend seemed slightly out of touch with the outside world. Abby had never heard of Metal Gears, nanomachines, the War Economy, or Sons of the Patriots. Once, when the girls were playing hide and seek, Sunny discovered that Abby's father had no computer in his study. These things seemed suspicious, but Abby was always such fun to be around, that Sunny would come back to visit her friend.

Uncle Hal would still try to distract himself with work, but he soon noticed that Sunny had been sneaking out at odd hours. When pressed, Sunny would always say that she was meeting with a friend. Her taste in books and games had also changed, which Sunny also attributed to the influence of her mysterious friend. Hal was initially happy, but soon grew worried as Sunny kept "forgetting" to give him any contact details for her friend or their parents.


	5. Chapter 5

One evening, as Sunny left her house, she found herself surrounded by a thick fog. When she eventually arrived at the mansion, she found it lit up, and surrounded by people. By now, Sunny knew how to sneak into the mansion, so she headed for the back gate.

Arriving at the back of the mansion, Sunny noticed a group of people gathering in the parlour. On closer inspection, the group was gathering in front of a man with an incredibly old fashioned camera for a photograph. Sunny noticed Abby, half hidden behind a man who Sunny assumed was her father, as the camera flashed. As the group dispersed, chatting to one another, Abby turned around and saw Sunny. Quickly, Abby unlocked the patio doors and invited her friend in.

As Sunny gazed around the room, Abby escorted her to an out of the way corner where they could talk.

'I'm so glad you're here! I thought I'd have to spend the evening with Eugene.'

'Who's Eugene?

'He's the son of one of my father's colleagues. He's bigger and much older than me, and he's really mean! I hate having to sit with him!' Abby exclaimed.

Abby pointed to the patio door, where two men were talking with a teenage boy.

'That's him over there. He talks nicely to the adults, but he likes to hurt animals and threaten to hurt me when no one's looking.'

'M-maybe we could leave, then, and stay in your room until he's gone,' Sunny suggested.

Abby nodded, and the girls left the party. However, as Sunny turned towards the stairs, she felt someone grab her shoulder and drag her to the back entrance. Abby screamed and tried to pull Sunny away, but the stranger turned around and grabbed her too. Sunny wriggled and kicked, but the stranger's grip was too strong. She turned to look at the stranger, and gasped when she saw Eugene staring back at her.

'Good evening, ladies.'


	6. Chapter 6

Eugene had dragged the girls to a darkened corner of the garden, where they couldn't be seen by any of the other guests. Abby had been shaking with fear the entire time. Sunny had tried to run when Eugene let her go, but he had grabbed her by the shirt and thrown her to the ground.

'I have a new trick to show you ladies tonight.'

As Eugene talked, sparks of electricity arced between his fingers.

'I've learnt to make my electricity do all sorts of things. I can even make it stronger.' Eugene laughed, as he advanced towards the terrified girls.

Abby whimpered and shrunk away as Eugene moved towards her. It was at that point that something inside Sunny snapped, and she roughly shoved Eugene away from her friend. Before Eugene could do anything in retaliation, Sunny kicked him hard in the shin. Eugene snarled and turned on Sunny. At that moment, there was a sudden flash of lightning, and Sunny could never be sure whether it was caused by Eugene or the weather. The lightning struck the ground between Sunny and Eugene, filling the world with light so intense that Sunny screwed her eyes shut. The last thing she heard was Abby crying…


	7. Chapter 7

Sunny awoke in her bedroom, to the sight of her uncle's worried face.

'Sunny! What on earth were you doing out so late?!'

Hal had grown worried when Sunny hadn't responded when she was called down for dinner. Her room had been empty, and she wasn't in the house. Hal's searching eventually led him to the mansion, where he found Sunny unconscious and shivering near the back gate.

Sunny tried to tell her uncle about what had happened last night, but Hal insisted that the mansion was empty, and had been so for years. In the end, Sunny was grounded for having snuck out while a storm was brewing.


	8. Chapter 8

Months later, Sunny eventually returned to the mansion. Uncle Hal had looked into the history of the building, and found that the family which once lived there, a wealthy couple and their young daughter, had all long since died. In particular, the little girl had disappeared shortly after her father's sudden death. Hal's research also found out who currently managed the house, and he had arranged for himself and Sunny to have access to the building in order to prove that it was empty.

As Sunny made her way through the empty halls, she was struck by how undisturbed the house was. The wallpaper had faded and was beginning to peel, the light fittings were festooned with cobwebs, and the whole house was covered with a thick layer of dust. When Sunny had visited Abby, the house was clean and well kept. Sunny still knew her way around, and made her way upstairs to Abby's bedroom.

The bedroom was as dusty as the rest of the house, and the furniture had been covered with dust cloths. Sunny looked around, in search of evidence that someone had lived here recently. Just as she was about to give up, Sunny heard the door creak. Expecting to see her uncle, Sunny turned around, and was shocked to see an older woman dressed in white. The woman crossed the distance between them, and enveloped Sunny in a hug. 'Sunny! I missed you!'

Sunny was too stunned to move or say anything. Noticing her silence, the woman continued. 'Don't you recognise me anymore? I'm Abby.'

Sunny looked at the woman in disbelief. 'You can't be Abby! You're old. Abby is my age.'

'I know it must be confusing seeing me like this. Sit down. I'll explain everything.'


	9. Chapter 9

When she and Sunny were both seated on the bed, Abby began her story:

'When I was a little girl, I thought the world of my father. I was vaguely aware that he was involved in some sort of global organisation, but I believed it wouldn't affect me.

'That changed after that night with Volgin. When he tried to electrocute me, it was only by sheer dumb luck that I escaped. I ran straight back home and shut myself in my bedroom. When my father came to talk with me later that night, I had cried myself to exhaustion. I demanded that he tell me why I had to spend time with someone as horrible as Volgin was.

'My father explained to me exactly why Volgin would visit us. Both our fathers were involved in the same organisation, and Volgin was being groomed to take his father's place when he was older.

'I also learnt about the organisation they were part of, The Philosophers. Over the course of that year, my father would tell me about what his plans were, and how they would affect current events. Maybe it was because of this, that I was taken when he died.'

Abby paused. Sunny was staring at her with a mix of shock and sadness on her face. Sighing, Abby continued:

'Some men from The Philosophers came to see me after the funeral. I was told that my father had made arrangements for them to take care of me in the event of his death. They brought me to a camp in the middle of nowhere with several other children, and put us through the most horribly brutal training you can imagine, in order to teach us how to be soldiers.

'To the surprise of everyone, including myself, I turned out to be one of the best students. When the war started, I was put in charge of my own unit. It was made up of soldiers from all of the Allied nations who had some sort of unusual ability. We were known as the Cobras.

'It was there that I met The Sorrow. He was from Russia, and had been recruited into the Cobras because of his ability to communicate with the dead. Over the years, we fell in love, and eventually we had a child together.

'Unfortunately, when the war was over, The Sorrow and I had to separate. Our countries were now enemies. In order to ensure we complied, The Philosophers took our child.'

As Abby told her story, she slowly and silently began to fade from Sunny's view.

'I spent my career in the service of the United States, and was involved in many of the secret government projects of the time. It was on one of them, when I was sent into space, that I saw the world as one, without borders, and dreamt of recreating it on Earth. I also trained another apprentice during this time, a man known as Naked Snake.

However, one of my missions brought me back in contact with The Sorrow. Our son was held hostage, and the Philosophers threatened to kill him if we both survived. The Sorrow decided that he would be the one to die, and … I agreed. I shot him.'

Here, Abby paused. When she had recovered, she continued.

'My final mission sent me back to the Soviet Union, where I was to recover the Philosophers Legacy, the information on the funds they had amassed to fight World War II, for America. To do so, I sided with the Soviets who held the legacy at the time, including my lost son. But the mission went wrong, and a Soviet weapons laboratory was destroyed in the process. It was decided that in order for America to claim that it was not involved in this, I needed to be destroyed. Snake was the agent who was sent to defeat me, and he succeeded.

'That last mission also put me back in contact with Volgin. It was he who destroyed the laboratory. Despite working together over what turned out to be the last week of our lives, he never made the connection between his new Philosopher trained ally and the little girl he used to bully as a teenager. In the end, he was the one who was afraid of me.'

By now, Abby had almost faded entirely.

'Since my death, I've seen the people I'd trained and worked with fight over how they should interpret my wishes. I was surprised, and proud, when a woman I'd known from the Mercury Project succeeded in raising her son to become the kind of person who would put the wellbeing of others before his own, which was a quality she valued in me. He's done a marvellous job of raising you. You know, I really enjoyed our time together. I felt like I really was young again.'

At this, Abby faded from view, leaving Sunny alone, and blinking away tears.

Sunny returned downstairs to her uncle, and found him waiting in the lobby.

'There you are, Sunny. Have you found anything of this Abby?'

Sunny nodded. 'Abby's not here anymore.'

As they left the building, Sunny turned back to her uncle.

'Abby said goodbye to me before she left. She told me that she enjoyed the time she spent with me, and that she was proud of the person you'd become. And now, she's gone somewhere she can be really happy.'


End file.
